PENDLETON — Two local youths who recently achieved scouting’s top rank also helped make a little history in the process.
Casey Davidson, 16, and Sienna Huther, 17, both of Pendleton, achieved Eagle Scout status as part of the first group of female Scouts in the country to do so.
Casey said it means a lot to be among the more than 900 female Scouts nationwide to earn the rank because it was an ambitious target they set for themselves about two years ago
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“Me and Sienna at the beginning, we were like, ‘We’re going to do it. We’re going to be one of the first.’ So, like, it was this really big goal for us to do it as fast as we could, while also doing everything correctly.
“So, it makes us both really proud that we were able to actually accomplish our goal.”
Casey and Sienna are members of Scouts BSA Troop 262, a group for girls chartered in February 2019 through First United Methodist Church in Pendleton.
Boy Scouts of America started allowing young girls to participate in its Cub Scouts programs beginning in 2018, while girls 11 and older were allowed to participate in Boy Scouts — which was renamed Scouts BSA — beginning in February 2019, said John Huther, Sienna’s father and the troop Scoutmaster.
Troop 262 is the only active female Scouts BSA troop in Madison County, he said.
Prior to the approval of their troop’s charter, Casey and Sienna laid the groundwork for their pursuit of the Eagle Scout Award, John Huther said.
“We actually started meeting together prior to the February 1st date, with Gary (Davidson, Casey’s dad) and myself, along with Casey and Sienna at the Pendleton library, to plan out our year ahead and to get the girls started in reviewing the ranks in Scouting and requirements for each rank,” he said in an email. “We could not start completing requirements, but these girls were dead set on being prepared (which is the Scout motto) and to hit the ground running on Feb. 1 as they wanted to be two of the very first female Eagle Scouts in the country.”
To get to Eagle Scout, the girls — like male Scouts — had to advance through six ranks and earn 21 Merit Badges (see related box). They also had to complete their Eagle Scout projects, which are efforts that must benefit the community and be led by the girls themselves.
Casey’s project was a 24-foot wooden pedestrian bridge across a creek at Green Township Community Park near Fortville, and Sienna’s project included a new flag pole and more at Pendleton Heights Middle School.
Casey said she happened upon her project last year when she was participating in Scouts summer camp, which had been moved from a location near Bloomington to the park because of COVID-19. The park is located on State Road 13 just north of the Madison-Hancock county line.
“I had talked to the person who kind of looked over the park, and he was talking about different things that he wanted to get done around, and I was, ‘Hey, I need an Eagle project, so why not,” Casey said. “I had a GoFundMe (online crowdsourcing page) set up, and I raised some money there, and then I managed to get the (bridge) plans from a guy in Canada, and then I talked to Lowe’s and got the materials at a discount.”
In the end, the bridge, which was completed in mid-October, took about three months to plan and build at a cost of about $1,200, Casey said.
The physical construction took just eight days, with help coming from 42 others, she
said.
“I had a lot of volunteers from my troop and the boys in town, (Troop) 232, and I had a lot of adults that I knew personally, friends or family friends,” she said. “We had the adults using power tools and anything that might not have been the safest, but the youth helped with most of everything else.
Sienna, too, had help with her project from both troops and others, totaling almost 20 people.
Her project included the installation of a 20-foot flagpole behind the middle school, visible from sports fields and the cross country course start line.
It also included the addition of shelving and a fixed ladder inside a storage barn, and a couple of large wooden “PH” cutouts, one installed on the wall in the auxiliary gym and one on the outside of the barn.
The project cost $1,218 for materials.
Sienna said she wanted to earn her Eagle Award in part because her brother Joshua, 20, had earned his. As it turned out, she also did her project for the same place, although it was just one of three schools she contacted about being the site of a project but the only one that responded.
Sienna, who is a senior and said she will be heading off to college next year, said she’s happy she closed out the project on time, not only for herself but for the other girls in the troop.
“It means a lot,” she said. “It means that I can move on now to helping the other girls advance, and spending more time with them instead of doing the requirements.”
Beyond this year, she said she’s unsure of what she’ll do related to Scouting.
Casey, a junior, whose brother William earned his Eagle rank in 2017 at the same age she is now, said she intends to continue at least into college.
“Considering that I’m 16, I’m probably going to go until I’m 18, is when I’ll age out. And then I’ll try to keep coming in every once in a while during college, to help out with, like leadership. I know realistically in college it’ll get hard to make it, but I’ll try to when I’m available.”
John Huther, who was in Scouting in his youth and has regrets about not pursuing his Eagle rank, said he’s pleased his children — including his youngest daughter Dakota, 12 — are involved in Scouting, and that two of them have made Eagle so far.
He said it’s also impressive that Sienna and Casey were able to methodically work their way through the requirements and make the first cohort of female Eagle Scouts.
“This is pretty big, as when boys join Scouts BSA they typically have from age 11 to 18 to complete this rank, and some may do it in 3 to 4 years,” he said. “But these girls did it in less than two years.”
Gary Davidson, Casey’s father and assistant Scoutmaster, said he’s happy Casey was able to get Scout’s top honor, especially since she couldn’t fully participate in Cub Scouts.
“All through Cub Scouts — I was my son’s Cubmaster when he started in second grade on through — she did every single thing but she was never able to win a badge, and it always was kind of a shame that they (girls) couldn’t.”
He said he’s happy for all girls interested in Scouting that things have changed and “super proud” of how Casey earned her Eagle.
“There were some skeptics and some grumbling, a lot of people that were, ‘Well, girls don’t belong, and they shouldn’t be able to do it, they can’t do all that stuff,’” Gary Davidson said.
“Every opportunity I watched her (Casey) step up, prove she could do it — as good or better — and a lot of those same people are now well on board and, I think, just about as proud of her as I am,” he said. “It was really neat watching some of those folks come around and realize, ‘Yeah, you know what, they do belong. They’re absolutely capable, and they do it well.’”
For more information about the troop, email [email protected].
The March to Eagle
Casey Davidson
Scout Feb. 11, 2019
Tenderfoot March 4, 2019
Second Class May 5, 2019
First Class July 8, 2019
Star Nov. 11, 2019
Life May 13, 2020
Eagle Feb. 8, 2021
21 merit badges (for Eagle)
First Aid
Citizenship in Community
Citizenship in Nation
Citizenship in World
Communication
Cooking
Personal Fitness
Emergency Preparedness
Environmental Science
Personal Management
Swimming
Camping
Family Life
Oceanography
Rifle Shooting
Archaeology
Archery
Chess
Disabilities Awareness
Chemistry
Search and Rescue
Sienna Huther
Scout Feb. 11, 2019
Tenderfoot March 4, 2019
Second Class May 5, 2019
First Class July 29, 2019
Star Dec. 2, 2019
Life June 2, 2020
Eagle Feb. 8, 2021
First Aid
Citizenship in Community
Citizenship in Nation
Citizenship in World
Communication
Cooking
Personal Fitness
Emergency Preparedness
Environmental Science
Personal Management
Swimming
Camping
Family Life
Coin Collecting
Chess
Search and Rescue
Sculpture
Fingerprinting
Wilderness Survival
Astronomy
Archery
At a glance
Eagle Scout is the highest advancement rank in Scouts BSA.
•In 2019, 61,366 Scouts earned the Eagle Scout rank.
•From 1912 to 2019, 2,598,999 Scouts have earned the Eagle Scout rank.
•In 2019, 8% percent of all Scouts BSA earned the Eagle Scout rank.
•In 2019, the average age of youth earning the Eagle Scout rank was 17.3 years of age.
Eagle Scout Rank Requirements
To earn the rank, a Scouts BSA member must:
•Progress through the ranks in the following order: Scout, Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, Life, Eagle
•Earn 21 merit badges, including: First Aid, Citizenship in the Community, Citizenship in the Nation, Citizenship in the World, Communication, Cooking, Personal Fitness, Emergency Preparedness or Lifesaving, Environmental Science or SustainabilityoPersonal Management, Swimming or Hiking or Cycling, Camping, Family Life
•Serve six months in a position of responsibility.
•Plan, develop and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious institution, any school or their community.
•While a Life Scout, participate in a Scoutmaster conference.
•Successfully complete their board of review for the Eagle Scout rank
Source: Scouting.org
